DREW VO: I'm Drew Scanlon.
I'm exploring the world through the lens of games, and doing it with the
support of people like you on Patreon.
Help us out at patreon.com/clothmap.
To my American mind, Cuba is practically synonymous with baseball.
This small country of 11 million people has produced numerous professional players who
have become household names across the embargo lines in America.
Cuba and baseball are so closely linked, the mere sight of soccer fields in surveillance
photos was enough to point to foreign involvement during the Cuban missile crisis.
In the words of Henry Kissinger, “Cubans play baseball, Russians play soccer.”
What makes Cuba’s baseball heart tick?
And is sport truly separable from politics?
To find out, we spoke with Roberto, a former principal of a sports training school.
We met at Sports City in Havana, a popular-- and massive--sporting facility that’s open
to the public.
ROBERTO: Here in Cuba, everybody likes sports.
It is difficult to know a person that doesn't like sport.
The practice of sport is good for health.
But it’s good to enjoy yourself, to get together, to have a time together, to put
down the…
Most of the time, it’s to do what you want to do.
We have baseball as national sport.
Since we are a child, we watch on the television, we watch baseball.
DREW: As a child, where would you play?
ROBERTO: Here, sometimes, and there, and there.
Anyplace.
Including on the street too.
DREW: Do children play baseball in school?
ROBERTO: No, not baseball.
Baseball needs more time, more resources, more space, and our schools... not every school
has space for that.
In every province, we have an academy, baseball academy.
These teams have games to determine who is going to be in the national team and represent
Cuba out of here.
Olympic Games, Central American Games, Pan American Games, the world championship…
And everybody is waiting, “who is going to be the first base?"
"Who is going to be the shortstop?”
Everybody is talking that.
DREW: In America we have players from Cuba. How do they go from Cuba to America?
ROBERTO: Oh, that's very, very, very interesting.
It is not easy because they have to put away the Cuban nationality in order to play there.
If you continue being a Cuban man, you can not play in major leagues.
Some of them do it, because they need to prove themselves.
When you are in other leagues, like Panama, Japan, Korea, Italy… they are not strong leagues.
You learn nothing.
You go to teach, not to learn.
But when you go there, you're going to learn.
And you are going to show that you are good, that you can be the best too.
DREW: And they can't come back.
ROBERT: No, they can't come back because if they return back, they cannot continue playing there.
Some people there are making great efforts to eliminate that problem.
They were here, where you are standing, they were here.
It's politics.
Sports is not a thing to blend with politics.
Baseball is sport.
Nobody’s thinking politics, nothing.
Only baseball.
Everybody relax on Sunday, participate with friends and family, in sports, in games...
social games included.
Some like to play baseball, some people like to play domino.
That’s Cuban life.
We can be playing domino all the night and then in the morning go to work.
We can do it.
Not with him, because he need to drink to play domino.
ALFREDO: No, it’s not true.
Ron o agua?
Rum or water?
JESUS: Water!
I’d like a water!
ROBERTO: Hey, hey, wait.
First of all, how much?
DREW: How much?
ROBERTO: Yeah.
CAROLINA: He wants to bet.
DREW: Of course he wants to bet with me!
DREW VO: Dominos.
A Cuban staple.
And, as I would soon learn, a seemingly simple game that is deep with strategy.
CAROLINA: You have to lose as much number as you have.
DREW: And if you can’t play, you pick one?
CAROLINA: No no no.
If you can’t play, you pass.
DREW: When is the round over?
CAROLINA: When the first person who wins…
DREW: Gets rid of all their dominos?
CAROLINA: Yes.
DREW: When you're deciding which one to play, how do you decide?
CAROLINA: I try to lose as much points as I can, and then I try not to lose all the
numbers.
So I can stay always without passing myself.
DREW VO: In other words, you want to get rid of as many dots as you can, but also try to
leave a variety of numbers in your hand so you don’t get shut out.
Playing with a teammate across the table adds another dimension.
DREW: How do you strategize with your teammate?
Can you talk about your hand?
CAROLINA: No. DREW: No. Okay.
CAROLINA: Usually you have to see the way that the other one is playing, and then from
there you have to guess what is the strategy that you both are gonna do.
DREW: So the first domino you play is kind of a signal to your teammate.
CAROLINA: Yes.
“This is probably what I have the most.”
DREW: So if you have all the fours, it's good because no one else has them.
CAROLINA: Mm hmm.
DREW: Okay.
CAROLINA: There are ten of all the numbers. So they count, so they know what are the pieces
that they have left.
DREW: If you get good enough, you can start to know what other people have.
CAROLINA: Mm hmm.
DREW: Yeah?
ALFREDO: Yeah!
DREW VO: Experts by now, Joey and I gave it our best shot.
JOEY: What’s the point of this game?
To get rid of as many as you can?
DREW: Yeah.
And each dot counts as a point, so you want to get rid of the high stuff.
DREW VO: The theme of the night was “knock knock,” the sound of our knuckles on the
table signifying that we didn’t have any playable dominos.
EVERYONE: Knock knock.
DREW: So I think I’m getting it.
If you have a lot of one number, you want to hold them until the late game, and then
screw the other team.
There was a point, they didn’t have any twos, and I had a six and a two, and I could
have played the six and blocked them from playing any more twos!
And then hope that Joey had the twos.
JOEY: Alright, I think I'm getting it.
DREW: Still, we were rookies, and got smoked.
JESUS: I’m sorry.
I’m sorry.
DREW: You guys cornered the fours and the nines!
JESUS: I’m sorry, my friend.
DREW VO: Despite our poor performance, we had a good time.
But it’s easy to have fun in a place like Cuba where everybody is welcoming.
Back at Sports City, a group of coworkers was even kind enough to let the American
have an at-bat.
DREW: I feel like I still remember all my Little League base-running strategy.
This appears to be just a group of friends.
This is not a team or anything.
So I fit right in!
ROBERTO: You can hear what you want, but this is the form we live.
As you see, nobody gets angry because of nothing.
Only play, and enjoy.
DREW: Even when someone like me comes and interrupts their games.
ROBERTO: You participated as a Cuban family, no?
“Let me play!”
“Okay!”
“Hey, you want to pitch?
Come here!”
That's Cuban, that's Cuban people.
Always.
DREW VO: Running around those bases, and sitting around that table, felt so familiar.
The feelings of competition and teamwork that emerge from games are practically a language
unto themselves.
And despite the differences between us, it’s a language we all speak.
This is the second of Cloth Map’s videos from Cuba.
Previously, we spoke to the administrators of Havana’s city-wide bootstrapped gaming
network.
Later, we’ll investigate Cuba’s involvement in another Cloth Map subject, the Chernobyl
disaster.
And if you’re subscribed on Patreon, look forward to an exclusive travelogue video,
showing behind-the-scenes of our trip to Cuba.
If you liked this video, or any of our other ones, consider supporting us on Patreon.
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